How the classical establishment reacts to Slippedisc
NewsBrilliant piece of scathing honesty by Richard Bratby in The Critic:
Another week, another classical music funding crisis and if you deal with this shit for a living you know the pattern by now. The story breaks on the Slipped Disc blog, and the serious classical journos pause for 24 hours so they can pretend they read it somewhere else. The rest of the sector doesn’t hold back.
Social media lights up with fury, initially directed at whichever funding body has made the decision, but swiftly refocused (the mental gymnastics are Olympic-level) on the usual suspects: the Tories, Brexit, choose your right-wing bogeyman. Gradually the shock fades; the great and good sign an open letter, and underpaid, exhausted admin staff start picking up the pieces. Again.
So why did I get the feeling, this time, that people were looking at me? Birmingham’s bankrupt City Council has voted to abolish its entire arts budget over the next two years, and because I worked for years in the management of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and later wrote its history, colleagues assumed I’d have views — ideally loud, angry ones, rather than the resigned ache of someone who’s been through the whole miserable process so often it barely registers any more. But I mean: this is classical music….
Read on here.
Why is Slippedisc so derided that so many of the “acceptable opinion-makers” either pretend it doesn’t exist or loudly proclaim how much they find it abhorrent? So far as I can tell, judging by my observations of the aforementioned on Twitter where most of them reside, it’s due to three elements: one, Norman Lebrecht is persona non grata among them; two, the vast majority of the commenters on here are non-woke and male, while the “acceptable opinion-makers” on Twitter are overwhelmingly woke and female; and three, virtually no one who comments on here is non-binary or some yet more absurd derivative thereof who loudly proclaims the sanctity and inviolability of their pronouns, while those on Twitter fall over themselves to they/them their saintliness and virtue on their bios. In a nutshell, it’s why I quit participating on Twitter a while back and have found much more of a home on here with the like-minded, terrible and awful unmentionables who frequent SD. I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, as that old ditty goes…
I think you’re quite far off the mark. It’s not so much the “non-wokeness” of commenters (what a venerable label) but the inflammatory journalistic voice. There’s the breaking news and hot rumors and sweet obituaries, and then there’s the garbage every time Yuja or Lang Lang or the Butiashvillis make any public decision. Don’t forget the snide, dismissive remark at the end that gets snuck into maybe 20% of the “news” à la MSNBC or Fox. I think it would be more highly regarded if it functioned like Adrian Woj’s Twitter on NBA news: impartial factual reporting on insider rumors. (Also, you must not have been on Twitter for a while to think the whole X era is woke…)
There’s a saying that journalism is what someone doesn’t want printed; everything else is PR. In classical music journalism probably well over 90% of what appears is essentially PR. The classical music industry is very comfortable with this, regards it as a highly civilised arrangement and I think in some cases sincerely imagines it to be the truth.
In that environment, even a single news source that can’t be bought or bribed, that enjoys being awkward and is more interested in breaking a story first than being absolutely accurate or fair – in other words, one that’s driven by old-school journalistic impulses – can seem like an affront; even an outrage. It’s why SD is the only blog that absolutely everyone in the industry reads (if they tell you otherwise, I have a bridge to sell you) and why if SD didn’t exist it would be necessary to invent it.
I’ve lost track of the industry scandals that have been flagged years, even decades in advance by Mr Lebrecht, and which were dismissed as the malicious gossip of a “toxic fishwife” or whatever. Until they suddenly become public property and everyone is asking “why did no-one speak out?”…
You describe the scenario in any media that covers a specialist topic. I am (nearly retired) after 45 years reporting a particular sport, during which time I became a thorn in the side of its various governing bodies and corporates. Our craft has changed so much with the advent of the internet; imo, the reason so much PR fluff masquerading as news gets used without query or follow up either because a) its free and folk running websites like stuff that is free or b) few of the said folk have no professional journalist background or training, and don’t know to go about digging out actual news, verifying it or building up trust with a network of useful contacts c) are too busy loading content onto multiple platforms to do any actual original reporting. Its so much easier to let the likes of Norman to flush something out, then wait for more info to emerge on SoMe in the next few days and then cobble all that up into an article without even needing to call any of the protagonists for an actual quote or fact verification. Norman rocks! I would love to have been him in another life.
I was not referring to so-called “X” as a whole but “classical music Twitter”, as I thought I made clear, which is in fact overwhelmingly woke, gender ideology-obsessed and, for better or worse, British. Another commentator they hate over there is Dave Hurwitz for daring to be honest and unvarnished in his opinions. Though I very often disagree with him, particularly with respect to Furtwängler and historical recordings in general, I find his approach refreshing and appropriately iconoclastic. But as with NL, he is uncouth, which is grievously offensive to the delicate sensibilities of “classic music Twitter”.
So in other words, you’re looking for a place where bigotry is more acceptable and the SD comments section doesn’t do that enough for you? Some of us feel that there are far too many bad actors in this section who would never be welcome on other websites.
Please define ‘woke’, if it is the crux of your argument.
“The story breaks on the Slipped Disc blog, and the serious classical journos pause for 24 hours so they can pretend they read it somewhere else.”
No, it’s so they can make some attempt to independently confirm the story. That is good journalistic practice, after all.
Of course, it’s also good journalistic practice to credit the outlet that first reported the story. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen when the source is Slipped Disc.
The ongoing problems of funding of music life in the UK seems to be – at least to a great extent – the result of Anglosaxon national identity: art is not part of national self-identification in the way it is in most European countries (except Netherlands, who outdo the UK in philistinism).
Totally agree, as an expat living 30 years in the Netherlands. It’s like living in Disney land.
Wise words from Richard Bratby.
I attended a marvellous CBSO concert on Wednesday afternoon: Benjamin Grosvenor playing the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto and a fresh and thrilling performance of Symphonie Fantastique. Kazuki Yamada is indeed loved by us concertgoers, not only for his musical results but also because, on the platform, he is charming and welcoming: I would say he is the chief asset (together with the orchestra itself, of course!) in encouraging newcomers to return: much more effective than mood-lighting and theatrical experiments which we’ve experienced recently.
I’m looking forward to the announcement of the 24/25 Season at the beginning of May. I’ve renewed my CBSO Friend subscription and will be getting in early to buy my tickets – do come and support a wonderful orchestra and join us: as Richard Bratby intimates, filling Symphony Hall is the best way to show support – and bring your friends!
My experience has been that everyone…EVERYONE in the classical music presentation world reads Slippedisc. In my many years at one of the top orchestras in the U.S. (worked in administration), I would hear the execs deride the site. I would also hear those same execs quote directly from SD without attribution (haha!) and also noted their joyous/glum demeanor whenever they were mentioned on the site, dependent upon whether they were praised or mocked on SD. They love for this site, whether or not they want to admit it! Carry on, Norman!
Exactly. 100%!
There also seems to be, in some US musical circles, a degree of Anglophobia. I am of course thinking of Dave the Dude and his many commenters who seem to think that The Gramophone is the biggest threat to American independence since the War of 1812.
SD is the National Enquirer or NY Post of classical music news. Two distinguishing features of SD — (1) allowing diverse opinions in comments section, (2) many blogposts end with Norman’s memorable bon motte.
Oh come on we all love being outraged by the gossip, innuendo, comments, and attacks. It’s the Page 6 of Classical music.
So, Norman, how long is it gonna be before the mainstream press recognizes Yunchan as the best living pianist?
it’s hard to take you seriously when you say that Theodora is the only Handel oratorio based on a serious subject, for example
Wrong headline again. The article is not about Slippedisc, which gets a passing mention only.
It is about arts under funding.
Human nature, Norman:
Speaking from personal experience, I’ve often found that many would rather shoot the messenger than accept to the message.
Well no smoke without fire.
You see this stuff often on here first, turned out to be correct.*
Idem Menuhin school – tip of a large iceberg.
+
I have experience of OPS (Strasbourg), much the same things carried on there from the orch leader for years.
*”But as far as we actually know, criminal acts were committed only by some teachers at Chetham’s School. If there’s more, it will have to come from a more responsible and credible source than Norman Lebrecht.”
Messenger
https://theviolinchannel.com/violinist-mark-messenger-london-royal-college-music-suspended-inappropriate-conduct/
+
https://slippedisc.com/2023/01/menuhin-school-is-sued-over-child-sex/
https://theviolinchannel.com/violin-pedagogue-jan-repko-charged-with-sexual-assault/
etc etc…
Curtis:-
https://theviolinchannel.com/curtis-institute-music-apology-violinist-lara-st-john-sexual-abuse/
If there were no SD with Lebrecht,
like it or hate it, you would get just the BBC who defended Savile for years and did all of this….
‘The BBC blacklisted me over Savile’: Sex Pistol John Lydon tells what happened when he tried to blow the whistle on ‘creepy’ Jimmy Savile in the 70s.